Stock Android theme mandatory on all ICS devices, says Google

One small step for Android, one giant leap towards iOS and WP7: Google has announced, with surprisingly little fanfare, that all devices with Android Market installed must have the stock Android 4.0 “Holo” (Nexus) theme/skin/layout installed.

“All devices with Android Market” is Google’s way of saying “all legitimate Android devices.” Basically, Android the OS is completely free to use by anyone, but Google keeps tight control of which phones and tablets can access the Market, and which devices come pre-loaded with its apps (Gmail, Maps, Navigation, and so on.) In essence, Google is mandating that carriers and OEMs must include the default, Nexus theme on all Android 4.0 devices.

Now, before you get too excited, this doesn’t seem to be quite as simple as “all Android devices will come with the stock skin.” The wording is a little more complicated than that. It seems like the Holo theme must be installed on every phone and tablet, but Google then says “We have no desire to restrict manufacturers from building their own themed experience across their devices.” The basic gist of it is that apps, in Android 4.0, will be able to choose whether to use Holo buttons and widgets, or the manufacturer’s widgets (Sense, Motoblur, TouchWiz, etc.) In other words, if you buy an HTC phone, you might soon have a mix of user interfaces to contend with: Sense on the homescreen and settings menus, but Holo apps.

On the other hand, though, if every Android 4.0 device comes with the Holo theme installed, will that mean that every user can simply select Holo as their default launcher? Much like you can switch between ADW, Go Launcher, and stock, will you be able to simply toggle Sense on and off? Currently, non-Nexus phones don’t have the stock launcher installed, so you have to root your phone to install it — but now, every Android device has to have the Holo launcher, which should make switching very easy indeed. We’ll have to wait until the first non-Galaxy Nexus Android ICS phone arrives to find out if this is the case.

If you’ve bought a Galaxy Nexus, or used a custom ICS ROM, it’s impossible to ignore the similarities between Android 4.0, and iOS and Windows Phone 7. Android has consistently struggled to achieve the same levels of (perceived?) smoothness and as iOS and WP7 — and now, with this mandate, Google is effectively admitting that a Wild West orgy of customization isn’t necessarily the right way forward. For the first time, Google has a competitive interface, and it wants to make damn sure that it seizes the advantage.

Let’s just hope that Google doesn’t go too far and lock down the interface entirely, ala Windows Phone 7. We all know how that has fared.

Update: We’ve had our in-bunker Android geeks look at this one, and it seems like all Android ICS devices will have the same Settings pages, but that the Homescreen and App Drawer will probably still be customized by the OEM/carrier. Google’s announcement really is rather vague, though, so it’s probably wiser to just wait and see.

Android is a good example of software that is “grown” rather than “designed”.

Basically, Google is making it up as they go along and throwing it into the marketplace as quickly as possible without much consideration for the consequences. Not exactly the best way to achieve a smooth consistent experience in my opinion.

Anonymous

Seems to me that we’ll be able to ‘help’ people with their phones and settings regardless of what interface or apps they’ve installed with this decision.

As stated in the article it’s still a bit woolly worded at this point however I’d imagine that having a stock base template from which to build on, via phones tied into Google accounts with Marketplace, will ease up on ‘troublesome’ apps and make most users have an easier time of it. A Linux flavoured closed source framework to stop people hurting themselves.

I’ll be sticking to custom ROMs when I can, but most people run from the word rooted and Google has to look after them.

At least that’s my interpretation.

Anonymous

The fact that Microsoft has a solid set of hardware requirements and requires each phone to have the same look and feel is not the reason they are not yet succeeding. I read the linked article and I saw no justification for this claim (it was more about releasing an OS without the right feature set and faulty advertising).

I wish Google would do exactly what Microsoft is doing as far as hardware and uniform OS deployments – I hate the current situation. I want to compare phones based on technical merit (how good is quality of the phone call, camera, GPS, screen, etc. and be freed of any software comparisons between phones). I don’t care if manufacturers or carriers want to pre-install an app that I can easily remove, but that is as far as Google should have let them go. Many other users feel the same. However weak a step Google just took, at least it is in the right direction.

Haidar Rossi

i hace a sony xperia updated to ICS, but it doesnt have any holo google nexus ics theme :(, these article is totally wrong

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